Brave New World
by Embarras de Choix
Summary: Earthquakes, warped space, shadowy creatures duking it out in the city… it seemed like something out of a movie, or maybe a very familiar a video game. All she knew for sure was that she'd tumbled from one world and into another, and that it would take a journey for her to make it back. But with the strange inhabitants of this new world, maybe she won't have to go it alone...
1. Spacial Rend

Title: Brave New World

Fandom: Pokemon

Genre: Adventure/Self-Insert

Rating: T

Summary: Earthquake, warped space, shadowy creatures duking it out in the city… it seemed like something out of a movie, or maybe a very familiar a video game. All she knew for sure was that she'd tumbled from one world and into another, and that it would take a journey for her to make it back. But with the strange inhabitants of this new world, maybe she won't have to go it alone...

* * *

Brave New World

by Embarras de Choix

* * *

I.

* * *

At around four in the afternoon, the quake came. First was the jolt, as if the whole building had suddenly found itself hanging a foot above the ground and fallen back down to fill the space. Then there was the split second of calm, where everyone looked at each other to say _what just happened here_—

_Then _the earthquake started.

Those who remembered the drills dove under the tables in panic as books rattled on shelves, chairs skittered across the floor, and lamps wavered dangerously; a crash signaled the point when one actually fell. A few people screamed, while everyone else just held on to something for dear life and waited for it to end—

Which it did, hours later (Okay, probably about thirty seconds, but felt like otherwise at the time.) The quakes stopped, but no one moved—unsure if the whole thing was actually over.

As for me, I peered cautiously out past the legs of the table I'd been studying at. I'd remembered the duck-and-cover drill, but with the way my elbows were stinging I'd probably skinned them in my haste to belly-flop the ground.

"Was… Was that a…?" a tiny voice asked next to me.

Next to me was Amy, who'd frozen at the start but managed to keep it together enough to follow me under the table. She was shaking, eyes wide with fear, but took a shuddering breath when the silence stretched on and no other quakes followed in order to speak.

"Yes," I said bluntly, saving her the embarrassment of stating the obvious.

"Oh. Um. Should we—"

The crackle of static burst to life in the air.

"_Patrons of the library, we have just experienced an earthquake and are now evacuating the building," _came the voice of one of the librarians, sounding ridiculously steady given the whole situation. "_Please remain calm and make your way to any of the doors or exits. Thank you for your cooperation." _

Librarian out.

"Okay. Let's, uh, let's go outside," I said weakly, and together we crawled out from under the table. Around us, others were doing the same, blinking like they were in strong sunlight. To their credit, no one seemed to be outwardly panicking, and instead started making their way to the front doors in a robotic fashion. Ready to follow, I took a moment to sweep my homework into my bag. Amy suddenly laughed, hand on her laptop.

"Is it weird if I'd rather work on my homework? It's not done."

We stared at each other, then broke out into helpless giggles.

"I mean, earthquake's over, I need to work! Can I stay inside?" my friend gasped, wiping away tears. We'd joined the steady stream of people trickling outside; most of them giving us looks at our laughing. I tried not to double over, fighting back giggles that threatened to turn into something else.

"Darn earthquake, interrupting us like that," I gasped, and we had to grab on to each other in order to keep walking. The whole thing wasn't really as funny as we were making it out to be, of course, but the mix of nerves and lingering shock made for an interesting combination.

We stopped on the steps of the library, smothering the last of the giggles. From where we stood we could see other, equally confused crowds of people spilling from the surrounding buildings to join with bystanders already there. A lone siren from some emergency vehicle wailed in the distance.

All in all, the LA skyline still seemed intact. There were no cracks in the streets, or chunks falling out of buildings… it seemed the earthquake hadn't been too bad after all.

"…I'm going to chalk this up as my first encounter," came my musing. "I don't really remember that one from 2001."

"Oh yeah! You're from Washington. You're like a veteran or something now."

"Ha ha. Yeah. But I think I'll be okay with it never happening again…"

We'd come to a stop at the sidewalk, and now stood at the curb, unsure what to do next. A police car was slowly making its way down the street, no doubt checking that everyone was okay.

"Um. So, should we go home?" Amy ventured tentatively, and I shrugged a bit awkwardly.

"I have no idea. They don't teach what you should do _after _an earthquake. Do you think the cops will want a statement, or…?"

"We can ask, that guy's coming over here." The cop car was indeed coming towards us. Amy raised an arm, intent on waving it down. "Excuse me?" she called, in an attempt to get their attention, "Offi—"

The ground rolled under our feet.

It happened in a second. First I was watching the police car, the cop leaning out the window… Then I was on the ground, feeling the blood rush through my head and hearing the screams fill the air. I must've hit my head falling, since all I could do was lie there, the concrete scraping my cheek. Was I bleeding? I hope I wasn't bleeding. My forehead felt sticky. The ground was shaking again—The earthquake had started back up? But people were screaming, why were they screaming was that just a roar—

_Was that just a roar?_

A sound was splitting the air, a sound that began as a slow rumble that turned into something else. I'd heard a lion roar at the zoo once, and this sound was both alike and not at all, it was a roar but _what was roaring?_

"…sten! _Kirsten!_"

…Someone was saying my name, tugging at my arm. Who..? Oh. Amy. Friend. Sounding hysterical.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," I heard myself saying, but my voice sounded far away. Weird…?

"We've got to go! Kirsten, get up!" Amy was shrieking, her voice shrill and piercing. My head hurt. I wish she'd stop shouting so loudly… I managed to make it to my feet all the same, wobbling as the sidewalk shook. The motion was making me feel sick, but I swallowed back the bile rising in my mouth because Amy needed me. Had to get it together—

When I looked up, the scene was chaos. The people who'd emptied into the streets had erupted into terrified crowd, some stampeding in whatever direction they happened to be facing, some pushing and shoving each other in their haste to go back the way they came, back inside. The police car was gone; I heard the sirens going full force somewhere in the distance, where thick black smoke was rising. Something was on fire, somewhere close by.

"Okay, just be calm. We're going to go back in the library," I said rapidly, ignoring my blossoming headache—where'd that come from? I'd hit my head harder than I thought— and trying to snap into some semblance of control. Together we turned and made for the library as if hell were on our heels. The earthquake, or whatever it was, had changed in the time it took for us to get moving; it wasn't a continual quake, like before, now it was alternating between moments of calm, and sudden bouts of shaking, the vibrations reaching up my legs in rattling the bone itself.

Almost like something was pounding against the ground.

The quakes made it hard to run, and all our concentration went to keeping our balance. I had to focus particularly hard, with the way the world kept tilting in front of me from side to side. I kept a firm grip on Amy's shoulder all the same, propelling her forward towards the doors.

"Oh my god!" Amy screamed again. My head snapped up as a nearby building suddenly exploded… no, not the whole thing, just a part, glass falling in a deadly rain mixed with metal and stone; something had crashed into it? But there was nothing there. It was nowhere near us, we just had to—

"Just keep going!" I yelled, but the second roar drowned out my voice, tearing at my ears—

"Oh my god!" Amy screamed again. My head snapped up as a nearby building suddenly exploded… no, not the whole thing, just a part, glass falling in a deadly rain mixed with metal and stone; something had crashed into it? But there was nothing there. It was nowhere near us, we just had to—

I stopped. Not sure why I did, with the crumbling skyscraper and new chorus of screams from those still stuck outside. All I could think of was the strong, dizzying déjà vu clouding my head, making it hard to think—

"What are you _doing_?" A little ways ahead Amy had run, not realizing I'd stopped. She was reaching for me now, hand outstretched, so I stepped forward to take it, reaching forward myself…

And reaching…

And reaching…

And reaching…

And… she wasn't that far away was she? Only a few steps. But I couldn't reach her, why couldn't—

I pitched forward when the ground once again quaked, this time more violently. Luckily my hands shot out, and I broke my fall instead of slamming into the concrete. My palms stung from the impact, and I ended up rolling onto my back, blinking up at the sky which was sunny and blue as if nothing was wrong.

Only, there were shadows. I blinked again, feeling my eyes widen, and tried to resist the urge to rub them because there were _things in the sky_. They were blurry, like I was looking at them through a filter, or a screen that hung between us, but there were _there. _Somewhere behind me was a scream; Amy must have seen them too. She was trying to drag me up again, but I could only look stupidly at the blurry images of two… _creatures_ superimposed in the sky that were launching themselves at each other and crashing… oh, they were fighting_. _Probably where the roars were coming from, my brain supplied helpfully, and I was kind of worried about how calmly I was taking this.

People were yelling, the earth was quaking, the tail of one of the shadow creatures had whipped around and smashed into the side of another building despite not actually being physically present, and my ears were ringing something horrible, and it would _really _be nice if all the sensory overload could just _stop_—

The air was warping. It was the only explanation my eyes could come up with; the shadow creatures had faded somewhat, nothing more than splotches of color, but as I watched, one of them—dark blue and four-legged, hints of silver flashing in the sun— reared up, front legs rising into the air. The second took the chance and charged forward, ramming its white-and-pink smeared body into the belly of the other. I had no clue was going on, but together they hit the ground with a thunderous crash, cries of pain rending the air… literally. There were little tide pools spinning and fading around me, glass and concrete twisting together in odd spasms. I watched as they stretched like trampolines, rippling out and then back into place as fluid as water.

Meanwhile, I just sat on the concrete and watched as everything spread out in front of me. I didn't think about running; I was too tired and felt like throwing up as it was. I didn't almost notice when Amy scrambled back, hightailing it out of there when the dark chasms bulged out in place of the ripples.

I _did _notice when one of them started stretching over the ground. I tried wobbling to my feet to run when it started stretching towards me—cracks spreading over the street and sidewalk that opened into a yawning crevice black as night—but the distance to the library had somehow turned into a mile. I turned, to look behind me, to try and see how far the chasm was away, how fast I had to go…

It was below me.

I slipped on nothing, and fell.

The darkness swallowed me with no resistance, the bright blue patch of sky above shrinking into a tiny line that finally melded together and left me all alone, in pitch black shadow that turned into canvas awash with stars and galaxies then shadow again, and I _saw—_

I struck rock.

* * *

There were rocks digging into my back. A particularly sharp one was grinding at my hip, and with a moan, I tried to wiggle off of it… igniting the mass of aches and pains that was currently my body. As if realizing I was awake and more or less functioning, my head threw in a fresh stab of pain, and the first thing I did was curl into a ball and try not to cry, riding out the wave as best I could. When the worst of it died down, I felt around the ground in a feeble attempt to sit up, which was a mistake when I discovered my sense of direction was shot. Not entirely sure which way was up and which was down, I went with lying on my back, trying to reorient myself and taking in the utter silence all around.

I panicked for a moment when I opened my eyes— _oh shit oh shit I've gone blind—_ until I realized that wherever I was, it was just _dark. _So I listened.

Nothing.

No… there was a faint pressure to the air, like when I held up a shell to my ear and listened. I heard stones slip when I moved, the shuffle echoing off into an unknown distance. I heard my breathing, whistling over my lips and dispersing. I drew in air, then broke into a violent coughing fit; there was dust coated on my tongue, clogging up my nose, and I hacked and spat trying to get rid of it all.

My coughing disturbed _something_, and I froze when the whispering scrape of wings filtered in the silence. The idea of being alone in the dark with strange things was frightening, though this particular sound reminded me a bit like… bats?

I could do bats. As long as none of them flew at me.

Only, along with the wings was a slight buzz, not unlike bees… buzzing bats. Sure. I'd seen weirder in the world.

…Weirder?

At that thought, my mind threw up fuzzy images of all the events that had led up to this, but they were just that: fuzzy. For some reason it was hard to think, and the fantastical images of shadow creatures and mysterious chasms was beyond me. It was probably for the better; if I thought about it all too hard, I was afraid I'd lose it, down here in this dark, silent, bat infested…

Cave. I was in a cave. The crack in the street… I'd fallen through it? And into some kind of pocket cave. Yeah, that had to be it, though I would have thought I'd fall into a sewer system of some kind instead… maybe the chasm had gone deeper than that. Maybe I was trapped forever in this secret cave miles underground where no one would find me because the crack had closed back up and—

No, I was started to freak out again, and I abandoned that particular thought in order to squash the rising panic attack that was making it hard to breathe. Deep breathes… deep breathes…

There was the odd shuffling sound again. I took one last, deep lungful of air, and sat up. If there were bats here, then there was a way out. I couldn't see a thing, but if I went slowly, I should be able to make progress… right?

Ignoring the nasty little whispers that I'd probably use up all my energy running into walls, or end up going the wrong way, or… or… so many worst case scenarios that weren't helpful, I managed to get my legs underneath me and stood, only shaking slightly. Beyond the deep bruising I knew was there, everything seemed okay. Sure, my right leg felt a little off, like it was buckling a bit outwards, but a few cautious steps proved that I could _walk…_ providing I didn't trip over rocks or something.

One step at a time.

…Naturally the first step I took was off some kind of indent, and with a choice curse I stumbled, falling back into a half-crouch with my hands on the ground to steady myself. Wow. Yes, perfect. Totally had this walking in the dark thing down. Now I just felt like crying again, but swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to stand once more.

As I did, my hand bumped into something stuck in the ground. I would have ignored it… had the object not been perfectly _smooth. _Somewhat curiously (and cautiously) I felt around until my hand closed around the mystery object, prying it from the ground. The thing was cool to the touch, and felt nice on my battered hands. It was also perfectly round, with etchings I couldn't quite picture after some careful probing with my fingers. Somehow, having an assumedly man-made metal ball to hold was comforting, and it fitted quite nicely in my palm anyway… so I hung on to it.

My second step in the pitch-black cave was more careful; by sliding my feet instead of blindly taking steps I could see, I could hopefully avoid any other surprise pitfalls or tricky stones.

It would be slow going.

Very, very slow going.

Now I just had to hope that the combination of silence and darkness wouldn't get to me.

* * *

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I DID IT, I'VE STARTED THIS STORY. Had to listen to an entire dragonforce CD twice to finish, but hopefully you'll enjoy this story! It's based on the games, and slightly inspired by Pokemon Special. I've never managed to really find a pokemon SI story (I do know one, but it hasn't been updated for a bit...) and I wanted to explore a serious, realistic take on having a character navigate through the pokemon world. Here's to hoping for a good run...

Thanks for reading!


	2. Supersonic

Title: Brave New World

Fandom: Pokemon

Genre: Adventure/Self-Insert

Rating: T

Summary: Earthquake, warped space, shadowy creatures duking it out in the city… it seemed like something out of a movie… or a video game. All she knew for sure was that she'd tumbled from one world and into another, and that it would take a journey for her to make it back. But maybe, just maybe, she won't have to go it alone…

* * *

II.

* * *

Somewhere, water was dripping.

I'd tried finding it, shuffling blindly through the dark, stopping every few feet just to make sure the drip hadn't stopped. It did, once, and I'd nearly had a panic attack until it started up again. Not that it mattered now anyway, seeing that I couldn't find it.

Ha. Seeing.

The light had not changed at all in the cave… that is to say, there wasn't any. Not a glimmer, or a 'shaft of light' or anything at all, just… _nothing_. As far as I knew I'd been stuck here for hours, or days. Or maybe not even an hour. At one point I remembered counting the seconds in my head, trying to keep track of the minutes but losing count after a few hundred was disheartening, and I stopped. Now I was huddled against a wall or a rock or whatever, listening to the incredibly maddening sound of water I couldn't reach.

God, I was thirsty. My tongue was lying like a dead thing in my mouth, coated with dust and possibly even blood (apparently I'd bitten through my lip without even noticing.) The dry, airless atmosphere of the cave wasn't helping; while tolerable at first, a lack of airflow meant that the dark space was muggy, and unbearably warm. It only seemed to grow warmer as I hobbled on, sapping at my stamina until— down I went.

I cried once. Not a good idea, with the water-loss, but I _needed _to cry. I was stuck, with no clue as to which way was out, or if there was even an out in the first place. Quite possibly I would never make it out of this cave; never see my friends or family again, while they would have no idea what happened to me. Was Amy okay? Did anyone else fall into the chasm? Had they declared me missing yet?

_Too many questions. _

Nothing to answer them with.

Instead, I played with my ball. Somehow I'd managed to hang on to the smooth object, despite all my near face-plants in the dark. I had it mapped out in my head by now; size, approximate weight, the thin grooves that separated it into two hemispheres. It even opened up if you pushed a small button, though there was nothing inside. To be honest it was the only thing keeping me from losing it… kept me grounded like a lifeline.

…Now I felt pissed. Had I been feeling better and not crippled from hunger, dehydration and god knew what else I would have jumped up and started marching in a random direction until I hit a wall or something, but my legs had decided they needed a 5-minute break a long time ago and refused to support weight; so instead, I grabbed at a random chunk of rock and pitched it as hard as I could.

Naturally I couldn't see how far it went. But I heard it land not too far away with a satisfying _thunk _and rattle off to the ground, setting off a small trickle of pebbles slipping from some ledge. This did not help me vent as much as I hoped, and I dropped my head with a groan; I would have felt like slamming against something if it weren't still tender. Stuck again.

At that moment the rock came flying out of the darkness and smacked into my stomach.

The air whooshed out of my lungs, not necessarily from the rock. If I had a glass of water I'd probably be doing a spit-take right now. Instead I just made a pathetic wheeze, too tired to actually scream or flail around, while sitting in absolute terror and praying to whatever god that happened to be listening for _light, _any kind of light at all—

_I wasn't alone in the dark. _

A heavy rumbling, a crunching noise, like stone being ground in to the floor of the cavern was growing louder. Something was… _rolling _towards me, if the sound was any indication, getting closer by the second and… grunting.

Oh god oh god ohgodohgod. By instinct I scrabbled all around for a handhold, or maybe a bigger rock to hit the thing with. Approximately every horror movie ever was running through my mind but my stupid legs were _still _refusing to work; it probably had something to with fear at this point instead of fatigue.

Meanwhile, the rumbling had increased to dangerous levels, and right when I could have sworn it was right on top of me, it… stopped.

I cracked an eye open, having squeezed them shut. I couldn't seen anything, of course. But the noise had stopped. It was quiet now, too quiet—

"_Geo." _

I croaked and shot back so fast I gave myself whiplash. My back didn't really appreciate the movement either and spasmed, leaving me shaking and curled up in a ball of terror as the creature in the dark began to chatter at me, somewhat angrily and in a manner not unlike this nagging old lady that lived next door back home. Which… was a very odd thought considering I was at the mercy of some horrible cave monster that… hadn't eaten me yet?

"_Geo! Gee, Geogeo!" _

Funny. I could almost make out a word in the noises. As the creature continued to rant (which it had to be, the way it was carrying on) I cautiously sat up, fixing my eyes in what I hoped was the general direction of the thing. Still no mauling or sharp teeth whatsoever. Maybe it was working up an appetite? My heart was still pounding, but spending hours in a cave relying on touch and sound alone meant my hearing was at absurd levels, and all the angry chatter sound rather… well, small. And low to the ground.

Something poked me in the leg. Hard. Again, I screamed—or tried too— but this time, I aimed a wild slap at the direction it came from and was rewarded with a deep blossom of pain as my hand smacked into a hard, bumpy surface that felt uncannily like a… rock.

I'd smacked a rock. That was still screaming at me.

That was about it for me, and I started to laugh. Not normal laughs, but rather a serious of hysterical giggles stuck between sobs and maniacal cackling. This crazy laughing stopped the chattering rock dead mid-rant, and in response offered a very confused-sounding _Geo? _

"No, don't mind me," I gasped, clutching at my ribs, "I'm just going crazy. There's a rock talking to me. I threw a rock, and a rock threw it back oh my god that's hysterical, isn't it?"

I hadn't the slightest clue what the rock looked like, but my imagination told me that it was probably staring at me like I was crazy. Which I apparently was.

The giggling died down as I buried my head in my arms, mood quickly slipping from amusement to flat-out depression as I whimpered.

"I-I'm going to die down here aren't I?" my voice floated out, muffled behind my arms, "I'm going to die talking to rocks that aren't there, and no one's going to find me."

The rock or whatever patted me on the knee a bit hesitantly.

"…_Geo." _

"I know, right? I bet this cave never ends, huh…. I'd give anything for a glass of water right now. Hey, maybe I should give you a name. Crazy people name things; what about Wilson? I bet you're a Wilson…"

Yes, I was babbling nonsense around now, but I honestly had no idea what to do otherwise. The dam had broken and given me some kind of rock thing straight from my imagination, so I was going to talk to it, dammit.

"I don't even know what I expected, trying to _walk _out of here," I decided to whimper in the meantime, "Pretending like I knew the way out of here. I don't suppose _you _know the way out of here, do you Wilson?"

Silence.

"Yeah, I didn't think so," I sighed, "I bet the rescue crews don't even know this cave is here. Stupid city planning…"

I would have gone on, had Wilson not proceeded to let out the most long-suffering sigh I'd ever heard from a rock. There was a couple of thuds and a bit of shaking as something jumped around me—some heavy object, but rocks were heavy, right?— and delivered another hard poke.

"_Geo. Geo!" _ Wilson commanded. I blinked stupidly. Wilson grumbled in an irritated manner.

"Oh. Um. Okay. Getting up now," I said weakly, and managed to. This amounted to a miracle in my mind, or maybe I'd gotten a second wind. Then again, my imagination apparently had a better sense of direction than I did, and by this point I frankly didn't care what happened, seeing as it wasn't going to amount to anything. I'd follow the talking rock; there was literally nothing else to do.

With metal ball in hand, I began the laborious process of wobbling through the labyrinth that was the cave floor.

* * *

.

I must have been more pissed off with myself than I thought, because Wilson was a brutal taskmaster.

Oh, I was tired? Too bad, thirty second break. Whoops, tripped over a rock, guess I was prime target for trying to set a new record for most amount of pokes in a single spot. Got lost in the dark just trying to keep up? Let's summon a pebble shower out of nowhere! Still wasn't sure how I hallucinated that one.

Aching legs and screaming lungs aside, it almost felt like I was making more process than when I'd first fallen in. The path itself seemed to wind this way and that with no clear straight shot, but the cave had grown a bit cooler in temperature… if that meant anything.

There was still no light at all. No doubt my pupils were as big as dinner plates, and I'd pretty much given up all hope of navigating myself. Instead I piled it on Wilson, which… was not helpful, considering he was a figment of my imagination. Great, I'd even given him a gender. Hopefully this wouldn't leave any long lasting side effects in the future.

All said and done, in the end I was hardly surprised when I put weight on my foot and crumpled like newspaper. It didn't even hurt when I fell. I just lay ther, inhaling dust and marveling over the complete lack of caring about getting up again.

My right leg has lost all feeling some time ago, making it harder to gauge my steps. The headache seemed a thing of the past; now I just felt fuzzy, like someone had shoved a wad of cotton where my brain was; probably what was stopping a proper thought process, too. I felt shriveled up without water and hollowed out by the sharp gnaw of hunger pains.

"I'm done," was my mumbled explanation, face mashed on the ground, "I'm done. Just… go on ahead. Thanks for the help."

Wilson was not amused by my defeatist behavior, and started chattering at me angrily, bouncing up and down from the sound of it; the solid thuds reverberated through my little spot the ground.

"I 'ppreciate it, man, but I'm… gonna take five, here," I slurred.

"_Geo! Geo!" _

"Yeah, I know. Lame. But… 'm tired."

With that I closed my eyes, fully intent on slipping away to dreamland. I didn't manage to drop off right away, especially with Wilson's rant growing louder and more urgent, but with a few seconds… Yep, I could feel unconsciousness coming on…

Something seized my arm and _pulled. _

And not just a measly tug that ultimately let nowhere.

I was dragged for a full few feet at the least_, _by something very, very strong.

Also very, very _not _imaginary.

Just like that I was awake. Skin stung where it had scraped unceremoniously at stone, but I hardly took notice as seized a sturdy-feeling outcrop with one arm and yanked the other away, strengthened by old hysteria bubbling up from wherever it had hidden.

"Oh my god," I whispered, "oh my _god, _what—"

"_Geo!" _

Wilson. Not a figment of my imagination. No imagination in the world could pull me over the distance I just went.

"You're… you're real. Ha. Haha." My voice had cracked. Nerves were quivering, senses pumped up by the sudden spike in adrenaline, and my eyes were wildly scanning the dark, trying to find an indication of where the next move would come from—

Rough, stubby fingers gripped at my arm again, tugging insistently on.

I screamed. Fear gave me enough of a boost that the scream was a step up from wheezy croaking as I shoved hard at a rocky object and sent it rolling away.

"W-What are you? Go _away! _Leave me alone!" I pleaded, fighting the words through my bone-dry throat and hoping I didn't sound as pathetic as I thought I did. I was scrabbling back at the same time in a blind attempt to put some distance between the two of us, or maybe to find something to hide behind…

"_Geo? Geeeeeee—" _

Whatever the thing was, it sounded more panicked than insulted, coming towards me at a rapid pace. I thrust out a hand again, waving it wildly in an attempt to ward off the thing before it came any closer and… my back met resistance. Instead of stopping I dug my one good leg into a foothold and _pushed, _feverishly thinking that if was I forceful enough whatever was blocking me would disappear or something—

Well, it didn't disappear. But it did_ move. _For a split second I thought I'd actually managed to push a boulder over through sheer strength of will, until I noticed that the boulder in question was not actually moving _back… _but sideways.

A low rumble filled the air. Stone rasped against stone, and I sat paralyzed with fear as the boulder passed me by… followed with what sounded like several other boulders right behind it. Wilson the imaginary-rock-that-wasn't-imaginary was tugging at my arm again, but froze mid tug as the rumble blurred into a different sound. A deeper sound. A sound that hummed through the air and the stone and _me, _which didn't real help my mental state at _all. _

"…_.nnnnnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyxxxxxxx." _

Some time ago I had deduced that the cave I was in was on the smaller side, based on how my voice seemed to carry. _This _new sound, as loud as it was, only amplified as in the darkness, something moved.

Something bigger than Wilson.

That settled it.

This whole goddamn cave was alive.

I wish I could say that the awakening of some giant rock monster was the most of my problems, but I wasn't the only one frightened by the tremors running through the ground or the sounds of small rockslides set off by them. Erupting in a flurry of screeching and frantic flapping of wings… came the bats that I'd heard at the very start of this whole nightmare. A whole lotta them.

I decided to take back my earlier wish of wanting to sleep; now I just wanted to curl up in a ball, stuff my fingers in my ears and pray for the whole thing to be over. The screeching of the bats was horrific, about as high-pitched as fingernails on a blackboard. Actually this was worse, and the giant rock monster seemed to agree as it rumbled in a tone that was both deeper and angrier. There was a heavy swishing noise, and several meaty _thuds _as small bodies collided with a hard surface.

Wilson had ditched me. The thumping and rolling he made whenever he moved around had booked it the moment the bats came, and I'd only just heard him go before most sound was drowned out entirely. One particular bat managed to dive-bomb into my hair, thrashing about in a fit of squeaks before I untangled it. It zipped away, chattering angrily.

After a minute of chaos the bats hadn't left. Somehow I had thought they would sweep through in seconds, leaving me alone with the rock monster, but when the rumblings kept increasing in irritation level I was struck with the horrible thought that the bats weren't leaving because they were _egging it on. _Jesus, that couldn't possibly be it, why would bats even _do _that?

I freaked. The rock monster rumbled. And somewhere, a bat let out a single, high pitched ringing noise that somehow cut through the rabble high and clear. This single bat set off the others, and the noise was repeated— one incessant tone, rising in pitch.

My head hurt. Nothing important at first, the last headache had barely faded away, of course it would come back now—

No, this was something else. The screeching, the ringing… it was doing something to my ears. My ears hurt. It felt like it was cutting into my head with a sharp knife, and it was getting worse the more and more bats joined in. What— there were colors jumping and bursting in front of my eyes. My ears hurt—I clapped my hands around them, but I was too late to stop whatever was happening, make it stop makeitstopmakeitstop—

_Sonic waves, _I thought numbly, as something trickled over my fingers and the bats refused to let up the attack, _they're releasing some kind of sonic wave. _

Then I couldn't even hear myself think.

I wasn't the only one affected. In the end it wasn't a rumble that finally broke up the supersonic bats, it was a bellow. A deafening bellow of rage, and pain, as the rock monster reared back and—

Smashed straight into the wall of the cave.

_WHAM._

Bats scattered. Dust scattered, and the wall burst in an explosion of deadly shards. The rock monster shook, reeling back and shaking itself as it swung in the other direction and—

_WHAM._

…smashed into the _other _wall, shattering it much like the first. It started back, bellowing in confusion. As for me, instead of make a break for it like any sane person, _I _was flat on my back, still clutching my ears and staring up at the massive bulk of the rock monster swaying above me. I'd tried putting one leg on front of the other, I really did, but the odd sonic sound from the bats had made it impossible to move. Somehow the wires in my head had been re-crossed; Moving one limb turned into moving another, and I'd gone down like a ton of bricks not knowing which way was up or down.

In my current state of confusion the movements of the rock monster were mesmerizing; I could just barely make out the bulky body, like someone had strung up a bunch of rocks together and called it good… But then it was swaying back and forth like a snake, and if I squinted I could see—

I could see.

I. Could. _See. _

Not very well, but even with all the din the pitch-black darkness had softened; I could make out the edges of rocks, of stalactites jutting from the roof of the cave. I saw a few fluttering figures, a few straggling bats left over. Something gleamed next to me; my metal ball. I had dropped it in favor of covering my ears. It was shining? No, it was _reflecting _light.

Despite the writhing of the rock snake, steadily growing more agitated, I sat up. Spots still exploded across my vision, but I could see, straight ahead, around a curve in the cave which was actually more of a _tunnel_—a light. A glow of light, steadily brightening until a single beam suddenly cut through to illuminate a perfect circle on the far wall. As to who had the light—or what—I couldn't tell, they were still too far away but it didn't matter because there was someone _there. _A rescue team. There was someone coming to get me out, and that simple thought alone stayed clear even if nothing else did…

…this was a mistake, as I forgot all about the rock monster above me. I was fixed on the beam, lighting up the whole stretch of tunnel as more joined it and I squinted to see past the beams to the figures rapidly emerging behind them.

I waved an arm, happy tears in my eyes.

"Over… over here!" I croaked, hardly above a whisper. "Over…!"

"—K OUT!"

Huh?

I looked up, just in time to see a string of rocks hurtling down.

A red flash burst in the air, joined by rapidly pounding feet. All I saw next was a blur of motion as something launched itself past me and directly at the approaching tail of death, meeting it _head on _with a sharp _crack _and an absolutely furious roar from the rock monster. Worse, there was an answering cry of challenge.

The rock monster went berserk.

One moment, a dinosaur-like creature had deflected the tail of death that would have easily squashed me. The next, it was flying as the tail it has just blocked swept it off its feet. I heard impact a little ways away, but was distracted when _people _arrived, _real people. _There were four of them—Wait, no, oh Jesus one of them had four arms what the hell was that?— _Three _of them, two of which whom charged ahead as the rock monster thrashed back and forth, the pure size of it setting off its own localized earthquake.

The third focused on me. It was a man, whose face I couldn't make out thanks to tears and the pain of seeing light after hours of darkness. He was saying something, but I couldn't understand the words—could only stare. Oh—he was lifting one of my eyelids with this thumb, and… shining a light? No, maybe not. Still couldn't make out details. He might have been wearing glasses, I couldn't tell—

Shouts, a roar. Glasses-man was shouting over me, issuing a command of some sort. He was also shielding my body with his, I realized with some shock. They were protecting me against the wrath of the rock monster and I was sitting here being _useless. _This line of thought was stupid, I know— there was no way I could have done anything. Not against a rampaging monster made of _rock, _smashing the walls and ground to a pulp and sending stalactites tumbling down to shatter like glass. One such stalactite fell perilously close and sent deadly stone shrapnel our way; I wasn't hit, but glasses-man hissed in pain as a red line slashed across his cheek.

Wasn't there anything I could do?

For some reason my eyes lit on the metal ball, which had miraculously survived everything unscathed. It was small enough to lift and close enough for a feeble grab. My fingers closed around the cold metal, feeling every scratch and groove on the surface—which, I absently noted, was a faded red and white— as I dragged it from the dust.

My exact thought? Maybe if I helped throw stuff at it, it would go away.

Ha. Ha ha.

The rock monster was currently under attack by three _definitely not human_ creatures who, from what I saw, were barely keeping it back. Glasses-man and the two others, shouting themselves hoarse and making wild gestures at times clearly stood no chance on their own. So, theoretically, helping would do no harm. At least I'd be doing _something… _right?

At that very moment the not-human with four arms managed to grapple down the rock monster's tail, pinning it to the ground. It thrashed about attempting to free itself but four-arms held strong, muscles bulging from effort of keeping it in one place. A place within throwing distance.

I threw the ball.

Glasses-man started, caught off guard by my sudden movement. I watched my metal ball soar in an impossibly perfect arc and drop directly on the squirming tail, 100% on target.

It bounced.

I grinned, fuzzy brain pleased by the shot, then froze.

I hadn't really expected the sudden burst of red light, or the rock monster to disappear mid roar and plunge the cave into silence. The tremors stilled, rocks stopped shaking, and everyone collectively held their breath from sudden anticipation—

_Click._

Nothing.

Somehow, everything was over.

"Huh," I mused, caught off guard. Then my eyes rolled up and I fainted dead away.

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Man, a lot of things happen here for a chapter that takes place almost entirely in the dark. At least next chapter I can actually start using dialogue, hooray!

Thanks for reading!


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